County Commercial Cars
The firm of County founded in 1929 was based in Fleet, Hampshire, England. The companies full name being County Commercial Cars Ltd The stated by converting Ford trucks from 2 to 3 axles. But moved in 1948 to converting Fordson Majors into Crawler Tractors. Then building 4 equal sized wheel tractor from the Fordson Units. Inventing several variations and specialist machines. They built over 30,000 machine over time. 2008]] History The firm was founded by Brothers Ernest and Percy Tapp, a pair of Former army offices in WWI. They set up a Meat transfer company to transport supplies from Smithfield market for Ernests fathers-in-law's butchers business. They found the available trucks too small and converted one to twin rear axle design to allow it to carry 2 ton. In 1929 they set up to convert twin axle Ford trucks to triple axles for other people after building their own and running it successfully, due to demand. Later they built the kits or Ford to convert Lorries at Dagenham. Ford when on to build Versions of the Model B and 7V trucks in 6 wheel form from county Kits. During WWII they supplied kits to convert WOT1 trucks to Sussex specification, with 14,000 being built. a small number of E817T chassis were converted, and fitted with winches as anti-aircraft barrage balloon launch trucks. 1957 saw the Thames trader introduced and a kit was made for these. Crawler Tractor Crawler design was started after the war for the Ministry of Agriculture, with the prototype built by 1948 for field trials. The prototype being on International BTD 6 tracks. They delivered 50 to the MoA by the year end. The machine was then offered with a Bray Angle Dozer kit for £1,140. Some machine being fitted with Boughton winches for forest work and recovery work. They could be under powered and in 1948 the Perkins 6 cylinder was offered as an option ( at a price) but boosting power from 29 to 45 HP. The design being modified several times, before the new Ford E1A Major was released. (TO be Continued........) Tractor development The Four Drive was basically a crawler with rubber wheels that steered by skidding ! Mainly based on ford units, but some were based on other manufacturers tractors. They also converted some to 6 cylinder engines, or to Perkins diesel engines. When ford started manufacturing there own 4 wheel drive tractors in the 1970, their business was reduced greatly but for a few specialist machine like the Forward control version. The Decline By 1983 County was in trouble and went into receivership in February. A Shropshire Dealer David Gittins formed a new company "County Tractors Limited", to buy the business, and updated the top models to the new Ford TW range spec skid units. The 1184TW used a TW-15 skid of 143 hp. the 1474TW was based on a TW-25 unit of 163 hp. The 1184TW had an uprated engine to give 195 hp. In 1987 County was sold to the Benson group and relocated to Knighton in Powys , Wales. Bensons built very few large machines but did build 2 for BSC at Ravenscraig, Scotland, being 1884 models. They shut County down in 1990. Tractor & Machinery Magazine V10-7 County Parts The Parts operation was taken over by Thama Group who bought the former County parts business from Benson and the remains of the Bamford operation also owned by Benson Group. Thema and then sold the parts operation in 2005 to Hampshire dealer A.T. Osbourne. Tractor dealer & Contractor A.T. Osborne bought the parts operation in December 2005. The parts operations stock & all the records and drawings were then moved from Wolverhampton to Ower, in Hampshire. They had been a County dealer back in 1981, the first non Ford dealer appointed as a County specialist. Following closure of County by Benson they continued in the repair & rebuilding business, focused on forestry and construction applications.Classic Tractor Magazine, Feb 2008 There is a good demand for parts as County built over 35,000 tractors and 75% were exported, with a lot still in use. Some are being repatriated as demand from collectors grows. Crawler Models *CFT E27N Petrol/paraffin, 1948-51 *CFT E27N Perkins P6, 1948-51 *Major Z , 1951-54 *Major Z MkII, MkIII, MkIV, 1954-59 *Major Ploughman *Major Ploughman P50, *Major Ploughman P55 *Major ploughman 6-cyl. *Refuse Compactor / Dozer Tractor Models This list is in introduction date order as far as possible (discrepancies occur in the dates of some models between sources). This List will be replaced by a table based on the format of cab at Belvoir Castle show ]] 2008]] 2008]] ]] *Four-Drive - 1954-58 *Hi-Drive - 1958-64 *Super-4 - 1961-65 *Super-4 Sea Horse 1963 (Scrapped)(replica made and valued at £15,000) *Super-6 1961-65 *654 - 1964-68 *FC654 - *954 - 1965-67 *854T - 1967-68 Turbo charged Ford engine *1004 - 1966-70 100 hp 6 cylinder (replaced the 954) *FC1004 - 1967-77 *1124 - 1967-72 *1124-Supper six - 1967- ? *752 - 1968-75 *754 - 1968-75 *FC754 - 1968-75 *4000-Four - 1968-75 *1164 - 1971-77 *944 - 1971-75 *1254 - 1972-75 - only 6 built *1454 - 1972-78 *764 - 1975-78 *964 - 1975-78 *4600-Four - 1975-81 *6600-Four - 1975-81 *7600-Four - 1975-81 *1174 - 1977-79 113 hp replaced by 1184 *6700-Four - 1978-80 *7700-Four - 1978-80 *FC1174 - 1978-80 *774 - 1978-90 *974 - 1978-90 *974 LWB - *1184 - 1979-90 120 hp (TW10 engine) (upgraded 1987 to TW15 engine), CCC built 394, CT 16, Benson 3? *1464 - *1474TW - 1978-87 *1184TW - (1983 TW15 base unit) *1464TW *1474TW short nose *FC1184TW *1884 - 1980-87 *1884TW *6610-Four - 1981-83 *7610-Four - 1981-83 Non Ford based Models *International 634 Other machine *Surrey 6x2 Conversion *Sussex 6x4 Converted Ford AA trucks 1930 *Model B *Model 7V *WOT1 Conversions *E817T conversions *Thames Trader *Ford Transit 4x4 conversions. *D series 4x4 conversions till 1970's for utility companies *High clearance sprayers *Half-Trac tractor conversion *Tractruk - a Tractor Drive axle mated to a Ford D series truck with a 4-wd front axle abd tractor tyres for on/off road use with slurry tanker/sprayer. (One only prototype built before County went into receivership. UK Preserved Machines These are very popular as preservation machines due to the rugged looks, and reasonable availability, as a lot have been parked up, as farms got new models. Some models are very rare and prices of A1 restored versions can be very high £20,000 plus. Serious collectors of Fords are likely to have at least one in their fleet . See Also *List of Engine manufacturers *List of Tractor Manufacturers *Bray - *Doe - Articulated tractors *ERA - Belgium builder of 4-wd tractors *Ford *Fordson *Ford (engines) *Northrop *Perkins - Engines *Roadless - Reference *Classic Tractors of the World by Nick Baldwin *Old Tractor Magazine *Tractor & Machinery MagazineV12-5 + various *Ford Tractor Conversions By Stuart Gibbard External Links * Ford & Fordson Association Category:Tractors Category:Tractor manufacturers Category:Construction plant manufacturers Category:Defunct companies of the United Kingdom Category:Companies of the United Kingdom Category:Truck manufacturers Category:Specialist machinery manufacturers Category:County